Crime

March 02, 2018

Protester Cristian Alejandre of Berkeley, center left, chants while his arms are bound by tubes during a protest against recent ICE arrests. Few hundred activists and supporters rallied outside the local ICE offices on Sansome St. in San Francisco. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

The Bay Area became ground zero Wednesday for clashes over immigration as hundreds of protesters gathered in San Francisco to rally against this week’s widespread immigration raids, and a battle heated up over whether Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf should be jailed for warning the community that a sweep was coming.

“What I did was legal,” and the morally right thing to do, Schaaf told reporters at Oakland City Hall on Wednesday, defending herself against calls that federal authorities charge her with obstruction of justice.

Julia Prodis Sulek, David Debolt and Tatiana Sanchez of the Bay Area News Group report in the San Jose Mercury News that Schaaf, who says she has been the target of death threats since she made her public warning Saturday, is facing a growing storm of criticism from the Trump administration and supporters of its efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants, many of whom live and work in the Bay Area.

“What she did was no better than a gang lookout yelling ‘police!’ when a police cruiser comes into the neighborhood, except she did it to the entire community,” Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in an interview with Fox News. He said Schaaf is to blame for ICE agents capturing just 150 of the 864 undocumented immigrants they were seeking earlier this week, and he accused the mayor of putting agents in danger. The Justice Department, he said, is reviewing the matter.

Legal experts differ, however, over whether the feds could make a strong case against Schaaf.

February 14, 2018

Yesterday the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) released a booking photo of Wakeen Best, 35, of San Francisco, who was recently arrested after an auto burglary led to the death of small Chihuahua dog named "Dunky."

A police press release said that on February 10, 2018, at approximately 2:00 p.m., SFPD officers responded to the 400 block of Stockton Street regarding an auto burglary involving a deceased dog.

The auto-burglary victim, who was not identified, returned to the location to find an "unknown" citizen waiting with the body of Dunky, a four year-old black and tan Chihuahua, at the corner of Sutter and Stockton Streets. The man initially believed his dog had escaped from his vehicle and fell from the seventh floor of a parking garage. He went up to the seventh floor where his vehicle was parked and discovered someone had broken into it, as there was broken glass and blood throughout the car, police said.

February 03, 2018

Yesterday San Francisco police released a video of an auto burglary sting that ultimately nabbed three suspects, who are now being charged with multiple felonies, including attempted homicide.

Investigators say that on February 1, 2018, San Francisco Police officers from Northern Station’s Street Crimes Unit were assigned to an auto burglary operation around Alamo Square Park in an ongoing effort to combat auto burglaries.

At approximately 11:51 AM, a known auto burglary vehicle, described as a black four door Infiniti with paper plates and tinted windows, was seen in the area of Hayes and Pierce Streets. A plainclothes officer saw that the suspect vehicle had three occupants as it pulled up to a parked victim vehicle, a black Toyota SUV. Officers then observed two subjects exit the suspect vehicle, peer inside, and subsequently smash the rear window to take items inside.

January 08, 2018

Photo of Justin McCall courtesy of the San Francisco Police Department

The San Francisco Police Department announced the arrest of one of their officers on sexual assault charges today, after a three-month investigation.

Justin McCall, 30, of San Francisco has been charged with sexual assault while the victim was prevented from resisting by an intoxicating substance and sexual assault of a victim who was unconscious or asleep.

A press release from the department says last September the SFPD Internal Affairs Criminal Division was notified of possible off-duty criminal conduct by the four-year veteran, and while the investigation was ongoing he was removed from his assignment in the Field Operations Bureau and assigned to a nonpublic contact position.

“Upon completion of the investigation an arrest warrant was issued for Justin McCall,” says the press release. “On January 8, 2018 at approximately 1:00 p.m. McCall was arrested and booked into San Francisco County Jail. … McCall has been suspended without pay.

“The San Francisco Police Department thanks the District Attorney’s Office for its assistance during this investigation. The public’s trust is of the utmost importance to the members of the SFPD and the Department will continue to work hard to build and maintain this trust.”

December 13, 2017

Binh Thai Luc, an undocumented immigrant from Vietnam, was convicted of killing three men and two women at 16 Howth St., on March 27, 2012.

A San Francisco jury convicted a man of five counts of first-degree murder on Monday for brutally killing a family at their home in the Ingleside neighborhood a half-decade ago.

Jurors returned the verdicts against 41-year-old Binh Thai Luc after seven days of deliberations in San Francisco Superior Court. The jury also found Luc guilty of five counts of first-degree attempted robbery and two counts of burglary, while jurors acquitted Luc of five counts of robbery.

“This was a very gruesome, brutal murder,” District Attorney George Gascon said outside the courtroom. “We’re pleased that we’re getting some accountability for the family and for the community.”

Michael Barba of the San Francisco Examiner newspaper reports that the verdict comes just a week after Gascon accepted blame for the acquittal of an undocumented immigrant in the high-profile killing of Kate Steinle. The two trials took place across the hall from one another in the Hall of Justice.

Luc killed the family at their home at 16 Howth St. across the street from City College of San Francisco on March 22, 2012.

The prosecution said Luc beat his victims with a hammer after losing money at a card club in San Bruno. Luc had a gambling problem and an eviction notice from his home in San Francisco.

Vincent Lei, 32, was choked. His sister, 37-year-old Jessie Lei, swallowed her own teeth and had a broken jaw. His mother, 62-year-old Wan Yi Xu, was beaten the most and struck 21 times in the head.

December 07, 2017

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An alternate juror who sat through a murder trial in a case that sparked a fierce national debate on immigration said Wednesday he agreed with the jury's decision to acquit a Mexican man of murder in the shooting death of a San Francisco woman two years ago.

According to San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi and photographer Jay A. Martin, this photo shows Jose Ines Garcia Zarate (formerly Lopez) on Pier 14 on May 23, 2015.

Phil Van Stockum, 33, said in an interview with The Associated Press that there was no evidence Jose Ines Garcia Zarate planned or meant to kill Kate Steinle in 2015. Garcia Zarate said he found a gun wrapped in a T-shirt under a seat on a popular pier, and it fired when he picked it up.

The bullet ricocheted off a concrete walkway about 18 feet (5.5 meters) away and flew another 80 feet (24.4 meters) before striking Steinle in the back as she walked with her father and a family friend.

"The ricochet played into heavily whether he had the state of mind to commit murder," said Van Stockum, who didn't participate in jury deliberations. Still, he sat through the entire trial and spoke with jurors after the verdict.

"I was not surprised by the verdict," he said. Prosecutors charged Garcia Zarate with murder, arguing that he planned to kill somebody when he picked up the gun. Van Stockum wrote an essay that Politico.com published Wednesday defending the verdict. He said he felt a need to explain it after President Donald Trump, Steinle's parents and many other commentators and social media users said they were disappointed with the decision.

"They appear to be confused by the verdict," Van Stockum said. "I was not confused."

Before the killing, Garcia Zarate had been released from a San Francisco jail despite a standing federal deportation order. He had been deported five times before. This made him a very effective villain for Trump’s border security campaign messages — proof that sanctuary city policies kill! — and it’s natural to be sympathetic about Steinle, who died in her father’s arms at the far too young age of 32.

Sarah Rumpf of the website RedState opines that the trouble with a politically-charged case like this is that there are many who seek to benefit from twisting, if not outright lying, about what really happened. And the facts here are far more complicated than any campaign slogans would lead you to believe.

These two facts are undisputed by the prosecution and defense:

On July 1, 2015, Kate Steinle was fatally struck in the back by a single bullet as she walked on Pier 14 with her father to view the San Francisco Bay.

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, a Mexican citizen illegally in the United States, fired the gun that killed Steinle.

As the trial in the San Francisco killing of Kate Steinle draws to a close, jurors must sift between dueling evidence and experts to settle whether the waterfront shooting that ignited a national debate over immigration enforcement was an intentional act by a violent gunman or a freak accident that befell a hapless homeless man.

Vivian Ho of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reported that prosecutors pressing for a second-degree murder conviction sought to prove that the stolen gun that killed Steinle couldn’t have fired without a firm pull of the trigger, while establishing that the defendant, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, tossed the weapon into the bay before fleeing the scene.

The defense, pushing for an acquittal, seized upon the fact that the single bullet bounced before it struck Steinle, suggesting that a purposeful shot was improbable. While a lesser charge of manslaughter is an option, Garcia Zarate’s attorneys maintain his innocence.

But with the main testimony done and closing arguments scheduled for Nov. 20 — though attorneys may still call rebuttal witnesses — jurors were left with little insight into an issue that is often clarifying in homicide trials: a motive.

October 25, 2017

(Left to right: Jose Ines Garcia Zarate is on trial on suspicion of murdering Kate Steinle, 32, of Pleasanton on San Francisco's Pier 14 in 2015. Photos courtesy of ABC 7 News.)

SAN FRANCISCO -- Bay City News and ABC 7 News report that the trial of a man charged with the fatal shooting of Pleasanton native Kate Steinle on San Francisco's Pier 14 will come down to the question of whether he pulled the trigger on purpose and what he was aiming at rather than his immigration status.

Opening statements began this morning in the trial of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 54, who is charged with second-degree murder in the July 1, 2015, shooting of Steinle.

The trial has drawn national attention because of its ties to the controversy over Sanctuary City policies used by San Francisco and other cities that limit the cooperation of local law enforcement with federal immigration authorities.

Months before the shooting San Francisco officials had released Garcia Zarate, an undocumented immigrant, from jail after a minor drug charge was dismissed without notifying federal immigration authorities, as is the city's practice for most cases.

However, Assistant District Attorney Diana Garcia did not mention Garcia Zarate's immigration status this morning, focusing instead on rebutting the expected defense claim that the shooting was accidental.

September 13, 2017

Randall Cady, 40, of Santa Cruz is one of five men now facing felony charges.

Yesterday the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) announced the arrest of five men who are facing charges for allegedly attempting to lure underage minors into sexual encounters using social media.

An SFPD press release announcing their arrest noted that recently the SFPD Internet Crimes Against Children Unit has received an increase in the amount of online sexual exploitation cases reported during the summer. They have been monitoring social media sites and mobile applications that children use frequently during these time frames.

Police say thy became aware of several individuals who were attempting to have sexual contact in San Francisco with underage minors through online social media. Several of the individuals attempted to send sexually explicit material to children.